Bono of U2, Philippine Red Cross for medical drone transpo via Zipline

Bono, lead singer and frontman for the band U2, and the Philippine Red Cross have joined hands in pushing for Zipline in transporting medical goods in rural and calamity-stricken areas using the technology of flying drones.

Paul Savid Hewson, (Bono’s real name) is one of the investors of Zipline, a medical-drone delivery company that helps get medical supplies in the rural areas in Ghana, Rwanda, among others.

Bono, together with Sen. Richard Gordon, Chairman, Philippine Red Cross; US Ambassador Sung Kim; and Keller Rinaudo, co-founder Zipline, announced their plans to begin ondemand and emergency blood deliveries by drone across the country through Zipline, the world’s first and only national scale drone delivery service.

This project is the first in the country and will be the largest drone delivery operation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Starting with blood from the Philippine Red Cross, and expanding to include over 150 critical and life-saving medical products, the revolutionary new service will use a network of autonomous drones to make on-demand emergency deliveries.

The service, which is expected to launch in the summer of 2020, is capable of operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Zipline plans to establish three distribution centers, which will be collectively capable of making hundreds of deliveries per day to thousands of health facilities serving millions of people across the country.

Future distribution centers will potentially help the partnership expand service to eastern Visayas and Mindanao.

“We are excited to bring the newest technology in fulfilling our mission,” said Gordon.